Banks now check credit history for hiring too

A bad credit history can not only affect your chances of getting a loan but also hamper your chances of landing a job in the banking sector.

Some leading private and foreign banks in the country have started checking the CIBIL score as a part of the pre-employment screening process.

Currently, IndusInd Bank, DBS Bank and a mid-size private sector lender, who did not want to be named, check the CIBIL records before doling out an offer.

Zubin Mody-Head-HR, IndusInd Bank confirmed that the lender has been doing a credit history check for the past three years now.

While some lenders do it for employees across the board, other do it only for select roles.

“We do check the Cibil scores of people, especially those in the compliance and governance roles before we hire them. This is particularly done for those who are in client facing and other sensitive roles in the organisation,” said a senior human resource official in a private bank who did not wish to be named.

Bankers explain that checking the credit history of people in this sector is important to maintain financial hygiene. An individual’s CIBIL score typically gets hit if you or your co-borrower has defaulted on an EMI payment (equated monthly installment) or has not settled a loan or credit card dues.

While some other lenders may not check your CIBIL score but they do check your credit history.

“We do not check the score but we do run a check to ensure that you are not a part of the defaulters list in CIBIL. This is a part of our background check and we do it for employees across the board,” said Kishore Poduri, Head-HR, DBS Bank India.

This has been a standard practice internationally but is now slowly gaining ground in India too.

Sunil Goel, Director, GlobalHunt explained that going ahead this could become a part of the standard background check done by companies across sectors.

“Several multinational banks had began to look into the credit scores and ratings of prospective employees before they were hired. Now, other banks have also joined them and have begun to check the credit scores to ensure that there are no goof-ups in the future. The objective is that an individual dealing with customer funds should have a good credit history and a good credit score themselves,” he added.